About Farouk Radwan
Learn from the pros
The best way to learn how to stop procrastination is to know what the professionals do
No I am don’t mean productivity professionals but I am talking about people who are professionals at wasting their time 
I have interviewed some of my friends who are famous for their procrastination and came up with few mistakes that they all did and that made them become procrastinators
In this post I will tell you about those mistakes and how to avoid them so that you can help yourself put an end to procrastination.
It’s a promise that if you followed these advice then you will never be a procrastinator.
How to end procrastination today
- Not being focused: If while doing any given task you answered your phone, checked your mail, opened face book, replied to a text message or even went to eat something then you will never finish the task on time. After all you will never feel that you are wasting time because each of these tasks takes less than few minutes but their combined effect results in wasting your time. If you want to be productive then be focused on the task you are doing and don’t do any side task while doing it.
- Waiting for the right mood: Lots of procrastinators delay important tasks with the excuse that they are waiting for the mood but the truth is that this mood will never come and if it came it wont last for long. At one day you might find yourself irritated, at another you might find yourself angry while a third day you might find yourself feeling bad. Even if you felt good who told you that these feelings will continue forever? The key to being productive is not to feel good all the time but to keep working even if you are feeling bad, sad or even depressed.
- Waiting for the right time: A large group of procrastinators claim that they are waiting for the right time to start but the truth is that they are afraid of failure, they like to stick to their comfort zone or they perceive the task to be very difficult. In order not to hurt their egos they deceive themselves by claming that they are waiting for the right time while in fact they just need to be brave enough to face the truth. The right time is now and If you waited for the right time you will wait forever.
- Not having a clearly defined set of tasks: Lots of people procrastinate because they don’t know exactly how to start or what to do. Productive people on the other hand usually have a list of tasks predetermined in their minds before they begin working and that’s why they never waste time thinking about which task to start with.
- Are you doing that you hate: Sometimes we blame people for procrastination while they are innocent. In many cases procrastination happens when the person hates the task that he is doing, that’s why most children waste time instead of studying. While not everything that you hate can be avoided still you can make different choices in your life that ensures that you will be doing what you like more than doing what you dislike.
Stick to these tips and procrastination will be a memory
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Hi Farouk,
These are all great points. It is so important to examine the inward self-talk that has us hesitating and procrastinating. The Conditioned-Self has an enormous investment in its reactive tendencies. It monitors our actions continually for any threats of newness. It uses emotional compulsions to pull us back to the old way. We will never overcome procrastination to realize new aspirations and aims if we allow old programming to determine our actions.
So true Rob, thanks for adding those points
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 8:41 GMT (Refreshes in 21.58 Hours)
Ah, i like this a lot. I tend to do this once in a while, mainly because my work can get very boring and repetitive. Applying these tips, i don’t see how i will ever put anything off again hah.
Thanks.
Making a Living Online recently posted..Whats Unique About Your City
glad to know you found them useful
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.98 Hours)
My god that is so true. Waiting for the right time, is my excuse. I think its also true that many people procrastinate as they don’t like what they do. Now to find what we really like to do, is another matter altogether. Thanks for this great post .
you are most welcomed dear, glad you liked it
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.78 Hours)
Hey Farouk. Thanks for this article. It’s easy to procrastinate in today’s busy world filled with new types of technology that occurs everyday. I like how you remind us to stay focused because each minute that we are distracted adds up later on, and it has the potential to just stop us from taking action all together.
you are right Hulbert, thanks for your comment
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.74 Hours)
I absolutely love this article. Many people struggle with procrastination everyday, such as myself. One thing from this article that stood out to me is the part about not having a clear defined set of tasks because this is a problem i have i need to know where to start a task before i can begin a task. Thank you for sharing this information.
Glad you liked it, thanks alot for your comment
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.70 Hours)
Farouk, you hit on one of my favorite points. Multi tasking doesn’t work. It just doesn’t. Concentrated focused use of your energy on anything is the real way to go.
Cheers on a very good post!
Joshua Noerr recently posted..Bad Day 4 Things You Can Do To Get Over It
really happy to know this, thanks for your comment Joshua
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.67 Hours)
Ok, can I be the guy on the coach for just one day? [grins]
Nice list Farouk. Getting up, on time, not wasting daytime, is a necessity to accomplishing the tasks at hand, eh!
Colleen recently posted..Three Rivers Community Roundtable’s 2010 Summer Workshop
Thanks for your comment Colleen
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.42 Hours)
HI Farouk,
So Nice to see you here
And this post is so full of great info…and good ol nudge int eh right direction
I must admit I have the tendency to “wait for the right mood”…but when i saw opportunities slip through my hands cause of well, my moodiness…i decided to go ahead and do something. And in doing something , miraculously the mood automatically changed for the better
The Right Intention and Acting on that intention is what makes all the difference.
Thank you fro a wonderful post!
Hi Steven,
So nice to be back here. Am gonna go ahead and catch up on the posts I missed in absence 
So long since I came your blog. Just came out of a one month offline holiday/shifting home
Much Love,
Z~
hey Zeenat,
Glad to see you here to too
thanks a lot for your nice words and the useful additions,
keep in touch
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.40 Hours)
wow wow wow. I’m lovin this list Farouk! You totally got me with, “instead of learning from people who know what they’re doing, learn from people who are procrastinators themselves.”
” Waiting for the right mood: Lots of procrastinators delay important tasks with the excuse that they are waiting for the mood but the truth is that this mood will never come and if it came it wont last for long. At one day you might find yourself irritated, at another you might find yourself angry while a third day you might find yourself feeling bad. Even if you felt good who told you that these feelings will continue forever? The key to being productive is not to feel good all the time but to keep working even if you are feeling bad, sad or even depressed. ”
This is by far my favorite largely because I hear this excuse day in and out. I’d be a millionaire by now if I had a penny for everytime I heard someone use this classic line of, ” I’m not in the mood.”
parker lee | howtomingle recently posted..11 Ways To Find Your Pursuit Of Happiness
I am really happy with your comment parker
you are right that is the most famous excuse , its the defense mechanism that procrastinators use to feel ok about themselves
lets all inform them about that and help them get their tasks done
keep in touch dear
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.16 Hours)
Procrastination is a huge obstacle on the way to one’s success and your tips are really helpful to overcome this problem. Thanks for sharing!
Roman Soluk recently posted..How to avoid food poisoning
ur most welcomed dear
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 23.13 Hours)
Your reasons/causes for procrastination are correct, but I’d like to add one: “Avoiding failure.”
I have known people who say they have a goal (for example, write a novel or start a business) but all they do is talk about it. They never take that first step, make that first leap, jump in and start swimming. Why? Because they are afraid of failure. So instead they TALK about their goal, creating the illusion that they are working on it. The only way they can get out of that rut is to stop talking and start doing.
Nancy Christie recently posted..Is fear aging you
Hello Nancy,
yes certainly fear of failure is one big reason for procrastination, sometimes procrastination is no more than a defense mechanism that the subconscious mind of a procrastinator uses in order to protect his ego, he prefers to be seen as lazy rather than being seen as incompetent as this might affect his self worth
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 0.80 Hours)
Thanks for sharing this article about procrastination .
Procrastination can Stay clear of stuff that distract your own attention. It can be simpler to perform the task when you avoid engaging things that may distract you. Students are oftentimes seen holding their phones sending text messages when studying simultaneously. Mothers enjoy television even when working with a mop and duster. In case you refrain from these disruptions, you will observe it will become simpler to get back to work
Thanks anyway and keep up the good work
Valentine Belonwu recently posted..Where Did Sickness Come From
you are most welcomed valentine,
thanks for your addition
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Thu 15 @ 11:06 GMT (Refreshes in 0.76 Hours)
Fantastic tips! When you discussed ‘do what the professionals do’, this reminded me of modeling (in NLP context). By finding a person that has excellence in the area you want to improve on, i.e. procrastination to motivation, a person would determine their ‘strategy’ for motivation. Then the person would start think AND act as they were motivated. At this point, excellence is just around the corner
Great info thanks for sharing 
you are most welcomed Greg,
thanks for the addition
Farouk recently posted..Response cached until Sun 18 @ 11:24 GMT (Refreshes in 23.99 Hours)
We’ve found the first item on your list – lack of focus – to be the biggest killer of productivity. In an age of blackberries, emails, etc., interruptions are frequent. Our answer — think in 20 minute time slots. You can always take 20 minutes to focus on something. What we’ve found, when we want to put something off, is that we will do it, if we say to ourselves “I’ll only spend 20 minutes on it.” Typically, once that first 20 minutes has passed, the focus continues a bit longer! This is especially helpful for daily to-dos, like exercise, having a meal with the family, etc.
Happiness and Wisdom recently posted..Review- The Habit Guide
i agree, nice tip
farouk recently posted..Response cached until Sun 18 @ 9:25 GMT (Refreshes in 22.02 Hours)
Procrastination can be an art form. It amazes me to see how many different ways my kids can procrastinate. I think in general people procrastinate because they don’t keep the end in mind. They see the terrible task at hand and fail to look past it to the benefits that they will receive when it is done. These are great tips to get past that.
Sherri Frost @ Self Hypnosis recently posted..Why am I always so detached from men and relationships
Farouk,
Focus focus focus! Man, that one rings true with me. I’ve found the use of a timer or a stopwatch to be very helpful. Otherwise, a task can drag on and drag on and before you know it you are putting if off completely because you have wasted your time!
Thanks for the article man!
Mike
Sometimes pointing out the obvious can be so therapeutic! Thx.
yeah true
but you missed one
How I tend to procrastinate is do other activities that I push back which are important, to avoid looking at the more important and urgent thing.
I probably don’t make sense…
lemme give you an example:
I have a French presentation that makes 15% of my French grade.
I also have Home Economics coursework that makes 30% of my HE grade.
My H.E coursework is more important, but I spend more time memorising and learning my French presentation than i do my HE coursework…even though I’m supposed to have finished my research for my HE I haven’t…
and I was meant to print it out and show it to my teacher yesterday…(due yesterday to teacher but not to exam board)
and my French presentation is tomorrow…
which i am using http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/how-to-memorise-an-entire-essay-or-speech/
(This was how I found out about this blog and I am quite glad I found this blog)
…and this is another way I’m procrastinating, by reading these types of articles ^^
like, even though it’s good for me to know how not to procrastinate it is more urgent/important to do my coursework. Or presentation.
…which I’m going to do…
*in a moment*
Shouldn’t this be renamed to How People Procrastinate?